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Love to have arthroscopic knee surgery

Published on NewsOK
Modified: April 8, 2013 at 10:10 pm •
Published: April 8, 2013

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A season that never really started for Kevin Love is now officially over.

Love will have arthroscopic surgery to remove a buildup of scar tissue in his left knee, the Timberwolves announced on Monday night. The Wolves called it a minor procedure and said Love was expected to be out four to six weeks while recovering.

The Timberwolves and Love were hoping the star forward could return from surgery on his broken right hand in time to play five or six games, but this development ended those hopes.

"I think he feels very poorly about this year," Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn said in a conference call on Monday night.

"It's been, frankly, a lost season for him. He's already said that, at least in part, to me. He's very hopeful he has a huge offseason. He very much feels he wants to make amends for what happened this year."

Or what didn't happen.

Love was coming off a breakout season in 2011-12 and fresh off playing a critical role in helping the United States to the gold medal in London when he showed up for training camp.

He also was starting the first season of a big new contract extension and planned on getting the Timberwolves to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

But he broke his right hand just before the regular season and missed almost the entire first month of the season. Love returned from that injury ahead of schedule, but struggled mightily to find his shooting stroke.

Then, just 18 games into his comeback, he broke his hand again. Love needed surgery this time to repair it, and the Wolves were hopeful he was going to get back on the court before the season ended.

Kahn said that he started feeling some minor discomfort in his knee while he was playing in December, but neither he nor the team felt it was serious enough to get an MRI.

After breaking his hand a second time, Love started ramping up his workouts in preparation to get back. But the knee only got sorer, and so the decision was made on Monday to have surgery.